By Bob Gaydos

My glove from 1952.

    Having been a sports editor in my career (two years with The Delphian at Adelphi College and a couple of years with The Sun-Bulletin in Binghamton), it was common practice for me to start the day with the back pages of the newspaper — the sports pages — especially when I was feeling pressured by the other news of the day.

    Like today.

    Today, many of those newspaper pages have disappeared, replaced by a hodgepodge of news sources on social media. You have to be careful whom you believe, what’s true and what’s not.

    Well, yesterday on Facebook I came across a sports story that made my day. For the first time ever, which is to say the 75 years it has existed, the Bayonne Little League all-star team is going to the Little League World Series in Williamsport, Pa.

    Damn!

    That’s big!

     If you haven’t guessed, I’m a Bayonne native. I played as an 11-year-old in what I believe was the second year of the league’s existence. Center field. We actually won the city championship thanks in large part to a talented 12-year-old, Luke Tansey.

    As an adult, I got to coach two sons’ Little League teams in Wallkill, N.Y. in the next century.  Even got to make sure my youngest, Zack, got the number of his favorite player: 2. Right, Derek Jeter.

     The point I’m taking my time getting to is that, among American institutions, Little League has lasted and managed to stay pretty much the same for a long time. I think that’s because, whatever’s going on in the world, it brings a community together. In Bayonne or Wallkill or wherever.

    The response I’ve seen on social media about the Bayonne team is proof of that. The whole city seems to be buoyed and lifted by the accomplishments of their young athletes. Busloads made the trip to Williamsport, just as I’m sure busloads did the same for other teams.

    But this is Bayonne, where I once broke up a no-hitter with a triple down the right field line in the new First Street stadium in the shadow of the Bayonne Bridge and made a lucky, home run-robbing catch against the fence in the 11th Street ballpark that actually snared a headline in the next day’s Bayonne Times.

    Little League is a collection of moments for everyone who plays or coaches or has a child playing. It is community at its best, at its basic level, whatever else may be going on.

    In many ways, Bayonne has already won. The players, coaches, parents, everyone involved in the league, the whole city has been given a healthy dose of hope and pride in accomplishment. You can never have too much of that.

     Bayonne is in the Little League World Series! That’s legitimate front page news in the peninsula city. But what the heck, as long as you’re in Williamsport, why not win the whole darn thing? What a 75th birthday present!

     Go, Bayonne!

(I had a moment of clarity last year and realized how my mom in her own subtle way had profoundly influenced my life. The column below was the result of that moment and I am happy to share it again this year.)

By Bob Gaydos

Anne Sokol Gaydos

I generally didn’t post something on Facebook on Mothers Day because my mom has been gone a while now and I always have trouble finding old photos. But as I read posts a few years ago, and looked at photos of other mothers, I started thinking about what Anne Sokol Gaydos, a typical, post-war, stay-at-home mom in Bayonne, N.J., gave me that had a significant influence on my life.

As I scrolled, nothing unusual came to mind until, suddenly, there it was, staring me in the face and sitting in a neat pile on the end chair of the kitchen table back in Bayonne. Each and every morning: The Bayonne Times, The Jersey Journal, The Newark Star-Ledger, The Daily News, The Mirror. The routine morning reading.

As I got older, I added to the pile: The Herald Tribune, The New York Post, The Journal-American.

With this constant immersion in the news of the day, I naturally went to college to study electrical engineering. For one semester at Cornell. Then mom’s influence came into play.

A wise counselor suggested that I major in English. At another college. Something about low grades and no attendance.

Me, Max, Mom and Zack. Mid ‘90s.

Long story short, I did. I went to Adelphi College (now a university) and majored in English. Specifically, writing. After college, I got a job at The Bayonne Facts, a weekly, then worked as a journalist for daily newspapers in Binghamton, Annapolis and Middletown for more than 50 years. Obviously, I still write and I still identify as a journalist.

So, in brief, that’s it. Basically, that stay-at-home mom who taught me how to play 500 rummy also gave me my entire career, which I have thoroughly enjoyed and still do.

Thanks, Mom, happy Mothers Day and happy birthday coming up May 17.

Love, Bob

By Bob Gaydos

Anne Sokol Gaydos

I generally didn’t post something on Facebook on Mothers Day because my mom has been gone a while now and I always have trouble finding old photos. But as I read posts a few years ago, and looked at photos of other mothers, I started thinking about what Anne Sokol Gaydos, a typical, post-war, stay-at-home mom in Bayonne, N.J., gave me that had a significant influence on my life.

As I scrolled, nothing unusual came to mind until, suddenly, there it was, staring me in the face and sitting in a neat pile on the end chair of the kitchen table back in Bayonne. Each and every morning: The Bayonne Times, The Jersey Journal, The Newark Star-Ledger, The Daily News, The Mirror. The routine morning reading.

As I got older, I added to the pile: The Herald Tribune, The New York Post, The Journal-American.

With this constant immersion in the news of the day, I naturally went to college to study electrical engineering. For one semester. Then mom’s influence came into play.

A wise counselor suggested that I major in English. At another college. Something about grades and attendance.

Long story short, I did. I went to Adelphi College (now a university) and majored in English. Specifically, writing. After college, I got a job at The Bayonne Facts, a weekly, then worked as a journalist for daily newspapers in Binghamton, Annapolis and Middletown for more than 50 years. Obviously, I still write and I still identify as a journalist.

So, in brief, that’s it. Basically, that stay-at-home mom who taught me how to play 500 rummy also gave me my entire career, which I have thoroughly enjoyed and still do.

Thanks, Mom, happy Mothers Day and happy birthday coming up May 17.

Love, Bob